Part 2 of WrestleMania started with the second Kickoff show, again with Corey Graves and Hot 97's Peter Rosenberg. Just like the first kickoff it was largely a replay of promos mixed with some match predictions from the two hosts. There was just the one match once again, and it was between Natalya and Liv Morgan. Morgan rolled up Natalya for the win, after they had both previously kicked out of reversals in the same sequence. At the end of the kickoff show came a piece of 'brilliance' from Corey Graves, when they previewed the match between Otis and Dolph Ziggler. Talking on Otis (and the love triangle with him, Ziggler and Mandy Rose), Graves said "this is why you never, ever ever under any circumstances mix business with your personal life". This right here was exemplary satire, as it is well known Graves left his wife and kids to embark on a relationship with WWE star Carmella.
After more words from Stephanie McMahon, the main card got underway with the NXT Women's Championship match between champion Rhea Ripley and Charlotte Flair. Why they decided to have this match first I really do not know. I expected the match to be a good one, and it did not disappoint. There was a good mixture of grit, aggression and athleticism, as well as some great trash talking. Flair kicked out of Ripley's 'Rip-tide' early on. The match ebbed and flowed before Flair chop blocked Ripley, and then with a game plan her dad would have been proud of, she continued to work on the knee she hurt. The way Ripley's leg gave way after the chop block even I felt it. There were then numerous submission attempts by both women before Charlotte's constant pursuit of the knee paid dividends when she was able to grab the win with the 'Figure-eight'. So Charlotte is NXT Champion again, but what will this mean for the women's division exactly?
The second encounter of day two was Aleister Black up against Bobby Lashley. Because of the circumstances we did not have any form of build up for this match unfortunately. Lashley displayed his brawn, and Black displayed his versatility. Lana was ringside, and as Lashley was smelling blood he lifted up Black, but she prompted Lashley to stop and 'Spear' Black instead. But as Lashley ran in for the spear, Black caught him clean with the 'Black Mass' to seal the victory. We will see whether or not they dwell on Lana costing Lashley the match or not, because if they do not, then there was not really any point of her being there was it. Black is a great talent, and the WWE must make sure they do not book him badly and destroy him, as they seem to waste so many people with potential.
Next up was the aforementioned match between Otis from Heavy Machinery and Dolph Ziggler. Sonya Deville accompanied Dolph to the ring after she had previously asked him to help her sabotage Mandy Rose and Otis' Valentine's dinner. Tucker from Heavy Machinery was injured by Ziggler, so he was not with Otis and there was no sign of Mandy at the start. Ziggler started well, before Otis took charge. Dolph thought he had the chance to end the match but then Mandy came to ringside and she slapped Sonya, before low blowing Ziggler. Otis then did the caterpillar and got the three count. Mandy came to congratulate Otis, who then proceeded to pick her up. Then in a moment that would have sent the crowd crazy, they shared a kiss. Otis...you are indeed the luckiest man in the world! We salute you. This was however a match that would have been on the kickoff show under normal circumstances.
The Last Man Standing match between Edge and Randy Orton was highly anticipated and it did not let us down. It might actually be worth pointing out that this worked even better due to the fact that there was no attendance. We had already seen some some brilliant promos in the lead up to this battle from both men. In the match we got drama, extreme violence and emotion that filmmakers would have been proud of, as well as a free tour of the WWE Performance Center! The match started with a sneak attack by Orton. Edge came out first, then while Orton's music played, Edge waited for him but Orton came out of nowhere with an 'RKO'. The ring bell finally rang and Orton hit Edge with another RKO, Edge barely made the count. As they moved to the gymnasium in the Performance Center, Edge eventually took over, later screaming an emotive "9 years" at Orton in regards to how long he had been out, Orton also barely escaped a count. They went back to ringside, before going backstage again and ending up in the office. Orton escaped a 9 count, and Edge thought he was Spider-Man as he climbed up and did an 'elbow drop' off the ceiling. As they continued to go around the Center they even took out the cameraman accidentally. Whilst they were still backstage, Edge climbed up and elbowed Orton in the ribs through a table. Orton later did a 'DDT' on Edge on a truck and then they went on top of an even larger truck. Orton survived a ferocious 'Spear' by Orton and Edge survived another RKO. Orton now on top was going to do a 'Con-chair-to' on Edge, but the 'Rated R Superstar' found enough in the tank to rise up and put Randy in a submission. He shed a tear, trembled and looked to the heavens before hitting Orton with a Con-chair-to for his triumph. He embraced a hapless Orton who was down and barely moving. A really good dramatic match, the only negative if you can find one, is that it went possibly seven or eight minutes longer than it needed to. A great storyline which had a good ending, and that we have to say has been sporadic from the creative team.
The Orton and Edge match was always going to be hard to follow up. And next was the Raw Tag Team Championship match between the title holders The Street Profits and the team of Angel Garza and Austin Theory. Theory was replacing Andrade who picked up an injury. Garza and Theory performed well, but we all knew the belts were not going to change hands in this one. Theory looked set to win the match for him and Garza after a superkick on Angelo Dawkins, he then slammed Dawkins. But just as he thought he was going for the pinfall, Montez Ford did a 'Frog splash' off the top rope and Dawkins rolled over for the win. After the match, Theory and Garza attacked The Street Profits and held Ford for Zelina Vega to kick him in the face. Vega was soon to regret it, as out from the back came NXT's Bianca Belair (who in real life is Ford's wife), who repeatedly hit Vega and then dropped her with her finishing manoeuvre, 'The KOD (Kiss of Death)'.
The Smackdown Women's Championship was on the line in a Fatal 5-Way match. Bayley was forced to defend her title against her bestie Sasha Banks, Naomi, Lacey Evans and Tamina. Tamina showed some dominance early on, but she was soon to be eliminated. All the other four women did a move on her, before they all stacked on top of each to pin her for the elimination. Sasha and Bayley of course partnered up many times during this match, but Naomi was handling the two of them with Lacey Evans outside of the ring. Banks then hit Bayley with a 'Backstabber' and then made her submit to the 'The Bank Statement'. So to the last three women then; Bayley and Banks laid into Evans, Bayley was aided with some trash talking that I found quite amusing. Evans then moved and Banks ended up being kneed in the head by Bayley. Banks confronted Bayley about it when she got back up. Banks was not concentrating on Evans however, and so she would not be struck by an approaching Evans, Bayley pushed her out of the way. Bayley thought she had saved Banks, only for Banks to fly straight into a 'Women's Right' from Evans. So it was now just Bayley and Lacey left. Evans pulled out all the stops including a moonsault, but Banks came back to the ring, as of course there was no disqualification. Not sure on what Sasha was going to do Bayley hesitated, but she actually helped Bayley with another 'Backstabber'. Bayley then drove Evans' face into the mat and retained her title. What happens next with Banks and Bayley will be interesting. Banks has been basically teasing a switch up on Bayley, but then does not go through with it. Surely it comes now.
I had no idea what to expect in the Firefly Funhouse match between 'The Fiend' Bray Wyatt and John Cena. What went on to take place was mind boggling, but I will try my best to break it down, but believe me, there is no quick or easy way of describing what happened. Cena's entrance music played, but immediately you could tell there was something strange about to happen as he did not come flying down the ramp like usual. Instead he screamed "Welcome to WrestleMania", and it went over to the Firefly Funhouse. Bray informed us that we were going to look at a another world and see who John Cena really is as he is going to face his most dangerous opponent yet...himself. Cena was then to enter a door which displayed a sign 'Abandon all hope ye who exit here'. A doll representing Vince McMahon called 'Mr McBossman' asked Cena if he had the 'Ruthless Aggression' to get through things or he would be fired (touching on something that actually happened). There was then to be a flashback to Cena's debut which was a defeat against Kurt Angle. Wyatt then said that Cena was living his biggest failure and that he could see why he almost got fired, while Cena screamed "Ruthless aggression" and tried to strike Wyatt, but Wyatt kept ducking. The next montage was of the old WWF show Saturday's Main Event, where Cena's Ego was questioned. The next sequence was a throwback to Cena's time as 'The Doctor of Thuganomics', where he used to rap and expose people, Cena was then to have a pop at Wyatt. A smart heartfelt section then came from Wyatt who said that Cena was the chosen one who could do nothing wrong and that Cena was the one who had multiple chances and not him. Cena then tried to hit Wyatt who moved, and Wyatt then knocked Cena down. We then saw Bray go back to the form of character he was when he first came in the WWE (as the cult leader of The Wyatt Family), the one who lost to Cena at WrestleMania 30. Wyatt said that match at Mania was his biggest failure, but 'now it was time to rewrite his own story'. They went back to the ring where Bray put Cena in position for 'Sister Abigail', but Cena was able to get out of it. Wyatt then gave Cena a chair and told him to do what he should have done at their first WrestleMania match. As Cena tried to strike Wyatt however, Wyatt disappeared. Another throwback then came, as we were now taken to 'WCW Monday Night Nitro'. Wyatt played Eric Bischoff and Cena came out like Hulk Hogan when he was in the NWO (New World Order) with graffiti on the World title. In a hilarious moment, Mr McBossman who was now at the announce table screamed "this is such good shit!". As they went back to the ring, Cena after taking down Wyatt thought he was hitting him, but it turned out he was hitting funhouse character Huskus The Pig. Wyatt then reappeared as The Fiend and gave Cena the 'Mandible claw' and won the match. Titus O'Neil had by now taken over as the host of WrestleMania, and his facial expression was how all of us felt, complete and utter bemusement. Was this the end of Cena? Was this smartly put together or was it a bit extreme? Time will tell.
The main event was the WWE Championship match between champion Brock Lesnar and the 'Royal Rumble' winner Drew McIntyre. Just like the Universal Title match on day one this match was never going to be a long one. For all of McIntyre's hard work to reinvent himself he was deserved the title, but he also warranted a massive pop, that if he was to win it here he would obviously not get. Though it was a certainty that he was going to win, I had a late thought that maybe he may not win here, but at a later date when there was a crowd. With there being no audience, after Lesnar entered there was no introduction by Paul Heyman. Despite my late thought, as expected McIntyre was to win a very quick match. I am more than satisfied that he won, what I had a problem with was the way the match went. Lesnar came sharp out of the blocks, but then McIntyre hit him with a 'Claymore kick', Lesnar then kicked out at 2, the first person to kick out of McIntyre's finisher. Lesnar then came back to give the Scotsman three german suplexes and then an 'F-5', but McIntyre kicked out at 1. Lesnar then hit McIntyre with two more F-5's but McIntyre kicked out twice more, both on counts of 2. Drew then hit Lesnar with three more Claymore kick's to grab his first WWE Championship. Now...we have seen Brock beat the likes of Samoa Joe and Braun Strowman with just one F-5, not to mention him beating 'fighting champion' Kofi Kingston in a matter of seconds with just one also. So, therefore how McIntyre can kick out of three of them so early in the count too is a bit baffling to say the least. Did they really think that through?Nonetheless we are happy for Drew. In what must have been a bittersweet moment as he never had the crowd to share it with.
As said in part one, hats off to WWE for still producing something in this very complex scenario. I gave a 6 on Saturday, and despite Sunday being a tad better than Saturday, with the standouts being the Women's NXT Championship match and the Last Man Standing match, overall based on the quality of the matches it gets a 6. The effort put in by everyone involved deserves a higher grade, but 6 is still watchable for a wrestling fan. Hopefully everything will return to some form of normality sooner rather than later.
@DubulDee
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